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A beginner s guide to the sushi bar experience You dont have to like raw fish to enjoy new trend Jane Snow KNIGHT RIDDER They’re hip, they’re fun, and they’re brimming with raw fish. But just because you like your tuna cooked instead of almost wriggling doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the sushi bar craze. Here’s a little secret: Up to half of the menu items in most sushi bars contain not a shred of raw fish. The food is healthful, the flavors are bright and clean, and you get to play with your dinner. What’s not to like? “At first just the Japanese came,” said chef Tony Kawaguchi, of Sushi Katsu in Akron, Ohio. “Now th£ local people support me. It’s an American food now.” But it’s a food many Americans still haven’t tried. That’s why we went searching for sushi that even sushi-haters could love. We found a ton of great food along with tips on how to order, how to tip, and what to do with that blob of green paste on your plate. First, the green paste: It’s wasabi (wah SAW bee), and it’s spicy-hot. It is the grated and dried root of a type of horseradish plant. Real wasabi is very expensive, so in this country — and even in many sushi bars in Japan — horseradish is used as a substitute. You are expected to pour some soy sauce into the tiny dish provided, and with your chopsticks mix in some of the wasabi. Then dip each piece of sushi in the sauce before eating it. Go easy at first on the wasabi or your eyes will water from the heat. Near the wasabi on your plate will be a mound of pale pink pickled ginger. The thin slices are for nibbling on between bites, to cleanse your palate. They’re sour sweet and addictive. By the time you get your plate with wasabi and pickled ginger, you will have already ordered. This can be a confusing process in a sushi bar. Although the chef is right in front of you, customers are usually expected to order from the server who takes your drink order. Do so, unless the chef hands you a small paper menu and a pencil. At some sushi bars, and in Special to THE OAMECOCK Sushi comes with pink pickled ginger and green wasabi paste. Mix a bit of the paste with your soy sauce, and munch on the ginger as a palate-cleanser. others at busy times, diners merely mark their choices on the paper menu and hand it back to the chef. If you’d like to speak to the server anyway, just say so. Consulting with the server or the chef is a good idea for first-timers. Ask for recommendations of non raw sushi. The server and chef will be glad to help, although in some sushi bars you’ll have to rely on the server alone because the chef doesn’t speak much English. That’s a shame, because the banter between the sushi chef and his customers is an integral part of the experience. In Japan, the . sushi chef is expected H to be both dignified and convivial. Dining at a sushi bar is a social occasion. The interaction between SUSHI • 13 HELLO • COflTinUED FROm II WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE AND • WHY? “The new ‘Charlie and the Chcfcolate Factory,’ because I want to live there and I want to be Veruca Salt.” WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR? “Ants, because when I was two I sat down in a fire ant pile and they bit me over one hundred times.” IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY ANIMAL AS A PET, WHAT WOULD IT BE AND WHY? “A green anaconda with its own bedroom, because who wouldn’t want a fifteen foot snake around the house?” WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PICK-UP LINE? “My favorite is ‘Can I have your phone number? I’d like to call your mom and thank her.’” WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CLASS? “Stage makeup, because I learn how to do black eyes and period makeup techniques ... and the teacher lets us play with fake blood: What more could you want?” WHAT IS THE WEIRDEST DREAM YOU’VE EVER HAD?“ “My entire family were giant mice and there wa3 a cat after us.” WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO COME TO use? “I wanted some place close to home, some place where it doesn’t snow, and I needed a place with both strong science and fine arts programs. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CLASS? “Stage makeup, because I learn how to do black eyes and period makeup techniques ... and the -teacher lets us play with fake blood. What more could you want?” WHAT DO YOU WANT EVERYONE WHO’S READING THIS TO KNOW ABOUT YOU? “I am an even bigger dork than I already seem.” —Jaren Hayes JEWELRY • COnTinUCDFROmil was called, she’s the designer who coined “shocking pink” as a name for her favorite color. She also dreamed up new ways for women to dress and adorn themselves with costume jewelry, but there the resemblance ends, Tanenbaum said. Chanel’s designs were classic and elegant, she writes. Schiap’s were influenced by surrealism and were bolder and more daring, with unusual colors of crystals often used in pear and octagonal shapes in the same piece. Those are much sought after by collectors today, Tanenbaum said. Other personalities loomed over jewelry in unexpected ways, Tanenbaum discovered. Keaiiy, an or me Victorian era was influenced ... all of the jewelry that was made was influenced by what Queen Victoria did,” she said. Take the jet mourning jewelry that came into vogue then or the jewelry woven from the hair of a loved one. We have Victoria’s protracted mourning of Prince Albert to thank for that, Tanenbaum said. Victoria’s influence continues today, “like when you have a baby and you cut off the baby’s first locks and keep them,” she said. Tanenbaum herself buys with an eye to condition first, and that’s her advice for new collectors. She recommends looking for pieces in excellent, original condition and passing by pieces that have been remade or renovated. What’s the difference between costume and fine jewelry? Today, she said, the line is well-drawn: Fine jewelry has precious stones and is set in gold or platinum. Most everything else is costume. But in earlier eras, some semi-precious stones figured in what would today be collected as fine antique jewelry. Other pieces, such as the Scottish plaid pins she shows in her book, are carved from agate, malachite, bloodstone and even granite — no sparkly gemstones at all. Nonetheless, they are highly collectible. As for eBay and Web sites such as www.rubylane. com and www.trocadero, among many others, Tanenbaum thinks they’re a boon to collectors — if buyers approach them with proper care. “When they go to an antique show, or when they go to the store, they can see eye-to-eye the person who is selling it to them,” she said. “They can examine the piece, they can ask questions about the piece, etc. Online, you know, it’s 'buyer beware.’” lo protect yourself, she advised, don’t even bid unless you have an assurance from sellers that they’ll take the piece back, should you discover it’s not what was advertised. Tanenba\im has bought many pieces in her existing collection from online sellers, but she avoids the types of jewelry that counterfeiters seem to target — for instance, the much-collected mid century jewelry of Miriam Haskell. “I would never buy a Haskell on the Internet,” she said. “Eighty percent of those Haskells on the Internet are embellished 'Haskells.’” In January, the New York Times published a story about the growing discontent among jewelry collectors over fakes on eBay, such as fake Weiss brooches. “That’s very discouraging because generally, when something is reproduced, it’s a high-end item, and people can get a lot of money for it,” Tanenbaum said. “But Weiss jewelry is generally not that expensive ... So it’s curious to me that anyone would reproduce them, when you can get the real thing for anywhere from $45 to $75.” PHOTO • COnTinUEDPROmil wood cameras, complete with old-fashioned bellows, dark cloth and upside-down images in a viewfinder. And while many darkrooms are vacant or remodeled for other uses, the Harlins still spend hours in theirs. The film, and camera industry is changing to accommodate the spread of digital cameras, which use sensors instead of film to record images. A shrinking but resolute number of photographers still cling to film cameras, although generally not to ones as old as those used by the Haruns. Now that many people talk of pixels instead of grain, and some of the most popular and innovative cameras will fit in a shirt pocket, in the world of film photography, some iconic camera models will become harder to find. Nikon Corp. announced in January that it would stop making most of its film cameras to concentrate on digital ones, and Konica Minolta announced that it would stop making cameras, film and color paper by March 2007. Although many professional photographers and ardent amateurs are migrating to digital, some have been reluctant. “A lot of people that have spent years with film hated to go to digital,” said Ken Spencer of Fort Worth, Texas, a former president of the 75-year-old Fort Worth Camera Club. But he estimated that 90 percent of the club’s 120 members have made the switch. Spencer said he still uses film when he shoots large format images, because “there’s no digital that can give me that resolution — although there may be soon.” The Harlins, who travel frequently, say they use digital cameras only to shoot “reminder” images, quick shots of spots they want to revisit so they can photograph them in a more leisurely and extensive manner. “It can be slow and tedious to process all that, but it’s what we do,” said J.B. Harlin, author of several books on photography. Besides spending long sessions in the darkroom, J.B. Harlin also builds some of his own old-fashioned cameras.' “A lot of my friends who print digitally scan film because they think the film resolution beats digital,” he said. Scanning film allows photographers to import a digital image of the negative or transparency to their computer. His wife, Susan Harlin, put it simply: “Digital just doesn’t sing to me — especially for the size we do.” Die-hards wanting such supplies as slide film are finding them scarce, although some small companies are filling niches. “To obtain a good photograph, whether it’s in the old view cameras or the latest digital, you still have to be a good photographer,” Spencer said. howto • conTinucDPRom 11 to drop a few academic obligations (like typing up the first few pages of a paper due next Thursday) and head out for St. Patrick’s Day. There’s plenty to do in this great town, so live it up. Remember that you’re only in college once, hopefully, and you want to make the best of it. To quote another favorite, Tom Petty: “The work never ends, but college does.” Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc. edu Solutions t ^JlvldlsBHl3l11n Is s Iq 1v In 1 3 i 01I3 1 g v illn 3 1 a 0 sIn v a 1 soy s n v Ajd s 3 1 n 1 ' MW v ~d~B^ v a v o "al t A _9_ A A A A A A A v n 3 AjBa a Tlld a v h s 0 a v T]Bp 3 1 a a v "oBIT v a 1 a v d 3 ojr n oils o a 3 v oMMljF^ 3 H Id 3 1 s o ABBs 1 ~sl s__a_jL_o_ n v 1 Mi 1 n v s s v i/m 3 1 TH n v iaj o aa a _L v_ h_ o_ v 3 1 die N V "I 1BT 3 o n <4 -L M 1 v I s ^B 3 I V I a 1 011AI ^B v 11 [o I 1 I Depressed? I | You nay be eligible to participate i I in a dktical study researching an \ | investigational medication for people I with depression, who ate not I responding to treatment. I Bigibie study participants may | receive study-related: medkal care, I research medication, laboratory work, I and evaluations, at no cost iwgw 803-434-1100 ^_i_ ... . 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